Finally, Ready to Get The Keys!

4-13-13

Things are moving quickly now to outfit, decorate and occupy our new home. Today, if we can get the key from U-Trust Realty, we will let a technician from a local appliance franchise in to develop an air-conditioning plan and measure the doorways and spaces for the proper refrigerator and washing machine. Sunday morning, Jenny is coming with a home decorator to measure and hopefully show us plans for creating a vestibule at the front door and outfitting the kitchen with longer granite or marble counter and wall cabinets, and redoing our master bedroom. By Monday, our mortgage paperwork can be done and we can be given the keys to the condominium unit. If one has to give a one month notice before breaking a lease, Leona could be calling the owner of our rental in the Beverly to tell them we will be out of here by May 15, our lease starting on the 15^th of the month, otherwise we will have to pay rent here until June 15^th which might not be a bad idea anyway if the technicians and decorators can’t be done with our home improvements in a month. I would love to be able to move in by May 15^th to give us and the cats some time to get used to our new digs before we leave for Brooklyn on June 24^th.

Mortage and Playing Games

4-12-13 6:33am Fri. (1)

      I prefer the cloudy rainy skies of Taichung to the smoggy skies we typically have; at least the air is cleaner. Fewer motor bikes, too. But I don’t like that I can’t ride my bicycle up the Han River. It has been raining or threatening to rain from the day we left Taichung for Kyoto eight days ago. I won’t be able to ride the bike except to American Eagle with my rain suit close at hand. It is cooler, too; 62 going up to 76. But as the weather deteriorated here, it got colder in Kyoto; 35 degrees right now! We were lucky to hit a warm patch while we were there. By last Sunday, the beautiful pink leaves on the sakura trees we saw the first two days were blown away. Already, it is getting warmer in the Northeast US, as warm as it is here.

      Shih-Dong wanted a Harley-Davidson vest from America even before he secured a $30,000us (1,000,000NT) home equity loan for us to help make up the difference between what Cathay Bank will mortgage and what we are required to pay the owner of the condo; 30% down. His loan won’t be ready for another week or two but our payment can’t wait so Leona is also getting a $15,000us (500,000NT) loan from her father until that loan is ready. This whole mess was caused by the man who is acting as our go-between fulfilling the role of a lawyer, such as Arnold Lande was for us at 1210 Ave Y. But this man we have doesn’t know as much as Arnold. He’s the one who said we couldn’t get a loan from a local bank because we had no local income; only my US pension. He suggested we go to HSBC. He was so wrong. HSBC screwed us at the last minute after Leona had gone through the trouble of flying back to the states to wire $80,000us which we were told was more than enough. Now we have to pay 38% down to make up the shortfall in the Cathay mortgage in addition to our monthly $780us rent and utilities at the Beverly. It would have been better to just pay for the $195,000us condo in cash from our home equity loan in TD Bank if we had known. At least our mortgage interest will be a bit lower here; 1.99% to 2.7%. On Wednesday, Leona put her chops on the documents for Cathay.

      Now Shih-Dong is talking about getting him a Harley-Davidson helmet from America, too! It doesn’t matter that he’ll pay for that himself; it will take up too much space. How come he gets to waste money on motorcycles and accessories he doesn’t need but I can’t get myself a fucking AC/DC pinball machine?

Leona's Family To The Rescue!

4-3-13 6:10am Wed. (1)

      Leona’s brother and sister-in-law will take out a home equity loan for 100,000NT ($30,000us) to make up the difference in the lower mortgage amount Cathay Bank will give us, I believe 4.5 million NT. When we go back to Brooklyn June 24^th, we will wire that additional amount to Leona’s Cathay bank account here where her brother and sister-in-law will retrieve their loan repayment. In this way, we will not have to spend all of the $70,000us Leona wired from TD Bank a few weeks ago and will have cash on hand for improvements to our new home. I’m confused about the amounts because I have not seen the paperwork which is in Chinese anyway. Leona has mentioned different numbers in the confusion caused by HSBC’s bait and switch. Now she feels better about going to Japan tomorrow. We will sign the Cathay mortgage agreement either today or Monday when we come back from Japan.

 As soon as we sign the mortgage deal, I will consider calling Mr. Hung about the AC/DC pinball machine and Rowe jukebox. I am going to buy both if they’re under $6,000us whether I have Leona’s blessing or not; she backtracked from my idea of making it my 60^th birthday present. I could buy it; however, the Cathay bank account is in her name. If I want the cash to pay Mr. Hung, I’ll have to ask Leona to get the cash, use my credit card from America (if he’ll accept it) or take out the maximum $670us TD Bank allows (three times a week?) from the ATM here; I could up it to $1,000 if I call and alert them first. Of course, if I have to do it that way, I will be pissed at Leona. I believe she’ll give me the cash from Cathay. Now that her brother is lending us extra money, we have enough cash on hand for my toys, home improvements, and the furniture and appliances. The patio landscaping and outdoor furniture and grill will be last.

HSBC Fucks Everything Up

4-1-13 8:56pm Mon. (*3)

      According to Leona, at 5:15pm, Kelly Li from HSBC called her back to say she had made a mistake. Leona said Kelly said she thought our property was on the west side of Beitun Road. Since it is on the east side of Beitun Road, HSBC could not offer us the 5.3 million 20 year mortgage; instead they could only offer us a 3.5 million 11 year mortgage.

      Leona said she contacted Jenny, her friend at U-Trust Realty, who, according to Leona was very upset, too and, forgive me if I get the transactions wrong, the lawyer who represented the seller was upset, too and had never heard anything like this before. No one seems to have heard anything like this before. From Jenny on down, everyone said there would be no problem for us to get a mortgage from a great international bank like HSBC; it was just a matter of going through the steps.

      I liked Leona’s idea of getting a mortgage here instead of using our home equity loan. The interest rate is lower here; 1.99% here as opposed to 2.7% at TD Bank. We took out about $100,000 of our $200,000 home equity loan to pay up our 1210 Ave Y mortgage and have $70,000us here to pay the down payment; that’s what Leona was told to get when she went to Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Now Leona says we have to shop around for another bank to give us a better mortgage. The Cathay mortgage of 4.2 million for 20 years (was that the amount?) doesn’t seem so bad after all.

      This occurrence of this mess-up so late in the ballgame, after we thought we were set with the terms HSBC seemed to agree to in the afternoon, is highly irregular.

      Leona got on the phone soon after I came home. At the end of the call, she told me she was talking with her brother; he had heard from his wife what had happened. He told Leona so that she should have brought more money from New York. I tend to agree with him at this point. I told Leona, in my first words since I came home, that if she really loved the condo she should go back to America and transfer the rest of the money; let’s just pay cash. I don’t think she’s going to do that. She will let Jenny and the team at U-Trust Realty get another bank loan for us.

 

4-2-13 5:52am Tues. (1)

      I sent an e-mail back to Jim after he wrote that he missed me. “One thing I can say about America, when an institution makes a decision they don't change their mind. Unlike in Taiwan where there gave me a drivers license a month ago and took it back a month later or, more recently, HSBC Bank approved our mortgage and called back three hours later to change their minds. It really happened, yesterday. How simple to be in dire straits in Newington. Here it's like a Chinese fire drill! Leona and I are upset but we'll look for another bank. The pinball machine, jukebox, and refrigerator will have to wait. At least we'll celebrate our 22nd Anniversary in style, in Kyoto, Japan. Sayonara, Taiwan.”

      I was a little angry and cynical at Taiwan last evening, but it may have sounded like I was aiming it at Leona. I told her that I was sacrificing letting her buy a condo in Taiwan knowing that, whatever protection there might seem to be for me as a foreign spouse, the law, if there is any such un-shifting thing, will be on her side. I resign myself to letting the chips fall where they may and not question any of the bullshit that goes on around here. As Pop said, “The fish stinks from the head.” The KMT is a fascist organization and thrives on loopholes. Banks may be slippery in the states but here, their rules are invisible and in flux. I wasn’t joking when I suggested Leona go back to Brooklyn and take out the rest of the home equity loan to pay $195,000 cash for the condo instead of dealing with a bank here. She told me to hold on and wait until tomorrow when other banks would be contacted.

Bitching About Everything in Taichung

4-2-13 11:36am Tues. (*2)

This is now the rainy season in Taichung coming after the Lantern Festival. (It rained in Taipei all winter.) Every day this week there has either been rain or the threat of it. I brought my rain suit in my backpack to work but didn’t have to use it. I put the back fender on the bicycle but got a little splashed when an asshole on a motorcycle sped past me in a puddle at the bottom of the railroad underpass.

After HSBC called in the morning to ‘approve’ our mortgage, we went to lunch. After lunch, unsure of the system here, I asked Leona if it was okay, now that we were sure of the mortgage, to call Mr. Hung and discuss the pinball machine and jukebox. Leona doesn’t want to have any part of it. “We don’t have that cash,” she said. “There are more important things to do.” She missed my point. Since all the talk of having a mortgage we wanted approved, ‘no problem’ according to everyone from the real estate agency to HSBC itself, I wanted to know if it was real or still talk. It was real to Leona. She just didn’t think I should get a pinball machine and juke box, especially for six grand, even if it would be an early 6oth birthday present. It’s a good thing I decided to put off negotiating with Mr. Hung until after we get back from Japan.

It is 68 degrees now in Taichung, going up to 83 degrees with heavy rain expected in the evening. In Osaka, it is now 46 going up t0 59, with rain there, too. We will be there in a couple of days. We’ll have to bring our coats and sweaters and scarves and gloves.

 The weather would have been nicer if we went to Tai-dong for the Tomb Sweeping Day vacation this time of year and save Kyoto for a warmer day but, alas, Leona was pre-occupied with the house and neglected to call her friend at the resort just as she forgot to register me for the Matsu Bike Marathon, or go with me to the pinball place in Daya. The worst thing about this condo business is Leona’s distraction from doing nice things for me. She was much nicer to me when she wasn’t concerned with this condo. She’s been distracted since the week before she left for Brooklyn and I’ve felt neglected and in her way. She couldn’t even be bothered inviting some friends or family over for our Passover Seder Saturday night. Last night I was so frustrated I said to forget about the fucking condo and just go on renting. Things were nicer around here when we were just renting.

 

 

Saving Face and Mortgage

Leona just called her sister-in-law about the Cathay mortgage. She told Leona Cathay had agreed to give us even less of a mortgage than HSBC offered. I asked how much less but she didn’t tell me. I asked her if the reason why was the same as HSBC’s reason about too much non-living space. Leona didn’t tell me. The bottom line is her sister-in-law’s face has been saved. We can get the HSBC mortgage without embarrassing her sister-in-law. I told Leona to call HSBC back and tell them we agree to their terms for the mortgage. I’m not sure if Leona is going to do as I said so I will wait a few minutes and ask her again. The point is to get the keys to our new home as soon as possible so we can start decorating the house and install air conditioners and other heavy appliances, beef up the kitchen, and tell Mr. Hung we want to make a deal for the jukebox and maybe pinball.

      The process of saving face in Taiwan is an interesting. Leona’s sister-in-law is an insurance saleswoman who related to Leona what some unknown person in their mortgage department told her, not even showed her on paper. There is no written determination of our mortgage application with Cathay and there might never be, I bet. The mortgage may have even been rejected outright but Leona’s sister-in-law doesn’t have to tell her that. In fact, she could be trying to gain points with Leona by saving her face just in case Leona has a face to lose by having the mortgage application rejected for any reason such as her not having an income in Taiwan or America. In that way the sister-in-law isn’t losing face at all! In that way, Leona’s sister-in-law actually looks like she did Leona a favor by saving her face, too. Wow.

HSBC Approves Mortgage? Cathay?

4-1-13 10:30am Mon. (*2)

      HSBC called Leona a short while ago on the phone to say our mortgage was approved, but only for 5.3 million NT, not the 5.65 million that we applied for. Their reason for doing so was that the size of our patio was too large and shouldn’t be included as a ‘living space.’ They give mortgages for what they call living space value and, living space alone, our new condo unit isn’t worth the 5.65 we agreed to pay; only 5.3 million NT. What that means is we can have the mortgage but have to pay 350,000NT ($11,666us) more out of pocket in addition to the 1,595,000NT ($56,500us) we originally thought we’d have to pay, a total of $68,166us (2,045,000NT) down, a 36.51% down payment, with 1.99% interest.

      Meanwhile, Cathay, who sent an assessor to the condo last Wednesday, hasn’t responded, yet. Leona doubts that we will get a mortgage from them because the application is in her name and she has no regular income in Taiwan or even America any more. The HSBC mortgage, on the other hand, is in my name and I’m ‘choosing’ to take it out for Leona to buy a condo with. I have a current income from my pension; HSBC doesn’t mind that my income is overseas. Later (I don’t know when) Leona will ‘gift’ half of the condo to me and put my name on the deed. Richard Hartzell, when I asked, agreed that was the way to do it. Leona asked her sister-in-law, at whose favor we’re applying for a Cathay mortgage, to find out what her bank has decided. In the event that they will give us the mortgage we asked for, and perhaps even with 20% down, not 30% as HSBC offered (now actually 36% down out of our pocket) we would take the mortgage from them, but Leona doubts they will offer it to us.

      I ripped off what I thought was the hips to a flower we were growing on our balcony. They were actually blossoms. I didn’t know, I didn’t ask Leona beforehand and Leona didn’t show me what she meant when she talked about the plant before. I have a history of killing plants or ripping out useful or nice growing things.

      I was just about to go out bike riding after seeing the forecast on Accuweather on-line. I decided to go upstairs with Sweeney for the second time today and see what developed. When a few raindrops fell, Sweeney headed for the door and we came back down. That’s when it started pouring.

The Matzu Bike Race I Didn't Join

3-31-13 6:50am Sun. (1)

     

      Yesterday was the Matsu Bicycle Marathon. When Leona was riding us to her endoscopy appointment, I noticed dozens of bicyclists heading to the Han River and I realized it was the day of the marathon. I regret I could have been one of the participants but Leona messed up and didn’t register me in time. Again, she said I didn’t want to contribute to the corrupt Matsu Temple in Ta-Jia that sponsored the marathon but I don’t give a shit; everything’s corrupt.

The Jukebox and/or Pinball Machine

3-30-13 6:31am Sat. (1)

      I took another long bike ride to Da-Ya to the SEC warehouse to hear the Rowe jukebox. Hung’s daughter was there and got me coffee, then sat behind a desk. Finally, his English speaking dyke daughter got off her ass in front of the computer to stand up and ask me if I had any questions. No, thank you, I had already called Leona to speak with her father again on the phone. The jukebox sounded good but Mr. Hung couldn’t figure out how to erase years of memory of songs still to be played in ‘favorites.’ Later, he whipped out an English manual and, with his daughters help, saw that by pressing ‘reset’ and ‘8’ the memory could be cleared. There are a number of things that need to be repaired inside the jukebox and a lot of cleaning and painting on the outside as well. $2,000 is ridiculous!  I’d give him $1000 if it were in working order and he included free servicing as long as I have the machine; I’d buy parts. Hung said the guy who had the AC/DC pinball wanted an answer in two days! I told Mr. Hung that was impossible as we hadn’t gotten the condo yet. Finally, I will give them an offer they must refuse; pinball and jukebox for under $6000. Otherwise, I’ll only take the jukebox under $1000. I don’t need to buy it. I saw the same Rowe jukebox on e-bay, in better condition, for $800. I will show him the ad if he insists on two grand. It’s like he won’t service it unless I buy it. He has to know how much I’d pay and make sure it works well, before I buy it. 

Any Cracks in the Condo?

3-28-13 10:03pm Thurs. (*2)

On the way back from lunch yesterday, Leona and I stopped off at the condominium where we hope to buy a unit soon. We were looking for cracks outside the building and saw none. We want to get the keys from the real estate agency and take a look inside before we close the deal. Our apartment in the Beverly has developed cracks in the walls in the two big earthquakes since we moved here. The twenty-two year old condominium with our new home survived the 1999 7.3 earthquake with no problems (as far as we know) and should fare well with this smaller one, too. We should be hearing from the banks about the mortgage soon.

 

HSBC didn’t inspect our new condo yet; Jenny and the staff at U-trust Realty were on a company vacation and they came back yesterday. They will go with HSBC to see the condo today at 1:30pm Leona and I will go, too, to see the condition of the condo after Wednesday’s earthquake and last evening’s rain storm. We’ll be looking for cracks and water and hope we find none. I’ll be looking to see if my plans to put the juke box between the office and covered bedroom windows and the AC/DC Pinball machine on the far left corner by the ledge on the enclosed patio as feasible.

In the afternoon, after lunch, Leona and I went back to the new home and met Jenny and a rep from HSBC who took photos of the unit. There were a few bunched up seams in the ceiling where interior decorating was done but no cracks from the earthquake Wednesday. I like the unit so much and feel so comfortable there that I didn’t want to leave. I measured some doorways and imagined where I would put the pinball machine and jukebox and have air-conditioning in the enclosed patio and office. Leona and Jenny talked about adding a vestibule inside the door and having a partition made between the living room and dining area.

Pinball, Jukeboxes and Earthquakes

3-28-13 6:00am Thurs. (1)

      I took a bike ride yesterday morning as was able to find SEC, the company that imports and services jukeboxes and pinball machines. I couldn’t find the address on MapQuest but Google Taiwan showed it on their street map of Da-Ya.

Address: 台中市大雅區神林南路513巷13號   Tel: 886-4-2560-2833 Fax:886-4-2560-1791  Email: sec.pc@msa.hinet.net

      I took a chance and rode there without calling.  I rode down the Han River bike trail to the Tan-Zih Bridge and through the old grade railroad crossing near Leona’s old home and down Tan-Xing Road past my eyeglass store. After finding the ware- house down a nondescript lane, I rang the door bell of the seemingly closed office. A man in his sixties named Mr. Hung came to the door with his wife. They let me in and Mrs. Hung made me a cup of coffee. When I walked in, I saw a brand new Avengers pinball machine and a used Rowe CD juke box from the ‘80’s. We sat in the office and I told him I was interested in buying the AC/DC Pinball Machine I saw on the website. Also, I was interested in buying a CD or 45 juke box. Our conversation in Mandarin could go just so far. He told me his daughters went to school in America and spoke English. Esther was in Taiwan now and could be contacted. He gave me her business card. I had to call Leona at home to speak with Mr. Hung and get more information.

He told her that they wouldn’t be getting more shipments of pinball machines for another nine months, however he had sold one six months ago to a man in southern Taiwan who wanted to re-sell it. New it would be 180,000NT ($6000us) but I could get it used for 165,000 ($5,500us). He said he would call the man and ask him if the pinball machine was still for sale and call me back. He then showed me the used Rowe CD jukebox. It still had the old labels from slots without CD’s and the three revolving DC’s in the top chamber needed a new motor to work. He plugged it in, the lights went on, but I heard no music from the three large speakers. He said the juke box would be re-conditioned and would be much cheaper than the almost new AC/DC pinball machine. My dream would be to get both of them for under $6,000. I told Leona she could make it my 60^th birthday present. It would be cheaper than a Jaguar. Originally I thought of only spending one grand but that would be impossible, unless I only get the juke box.

A 6.1 earthquake hit central Taiwan yesterday at 10:03am. It was the biggest earthquake here since the 7.2 in 1999 that killed 3,000 and destroyed many buildings and roads. Leona was here for that one, unluckily on a two week visit! This one cracked walls in our apartment and some buildings and roads, compromised some railroads, and rattled nerves. We, on the thirteenth floor, swayed and jumped for twenty seconds. The cats went crazy looking for a place to hide. A few drawers and the balcony doors were drawn open. A desk lamp fell. There have been three sizable earthquakes since we moved here in Oct. 2012. It feels like when you're standing on an elevated subway and the train stops at the last station. We were a little scared but okay.” I copied this paragraph onto my Facebook page and got well wishes from five people; Mike, Patty, Renna, Jessica, Robin, and Simone. Simone said she tried to call in the morning in Pittsburgh. I did get one ring while I was in class last evening but picked it up to no response. Jon, who didn’t know that his own state’s corrections boss was murdered last week did know that we had an earthquake in Taiwan and wrote me an e-mail. So did Selma. I copied and pasted the above paragraph to them, too. I will call Simone later or go on Skype.

Mortgage, Rain, and Passover in Taichung

3-28-13

Yesterday, Leona went to Cathay Bank to transfer another 10% ($19,500us?) into the escarole account of the real estate agency. We have to give another of the three 10% payments to secure the purchase of the condo, a total of $58,500us which is 30% of the price. We are waiting for HSBC and/or Cathay Bank to approve out mortgage which would be between 70-80% for twenty years at 1.99% interest. Jenny called and told Leona that assessors from Cathay Bank had visited the property yesterday. HSBC may not even send an in-person assessor as they have photos of the property and a working relationship with U-Trust Realty.

      It was a cool day yesterday and eventually rained in the evening. I had brought my rain suit to work just in case I needed it for the ride home. I didn’t. I went for a walk with Leona to a local noodle joint on Dong-Shan Road; our Shan-Xi Buddha-looking noodle guy’s place was closed. We then got some cat food at the pet store.  We also went into the electronics store where we got our desk top computer, TV, etc. to see the air-conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators. Their technicians are authorized to install Hitachi air-cons.

It rained after we got home. Taiwan is experiencing a draught and every drop of rain helps, if it falls in the mountain reservoirs. Today it is drier and will be warmer. It is now 70 going up to 82 degrees and the forecast says rain, but outside the window it doesn’t look like it. I will bring Sweeney-Poo up to the roof-garden and maybe go for a bike ride stopping off at the Giant dealer to adjust the gears on the bike.

      I had wet matzo with butter and salt for breakfast. Today is the first day of Passover. I had noodles last night and will probably have more later on but I will also eat matzo and make a Seder on Saturday for me and Leona.

The Nitty Gritty of Taiwan Banks

3-23-13 6:57am Sat. (1)

      I went with Leona to the HSBC meeting with Kelli Li, Mortgage Acquisition Manager at the HSBC Bank. The first thing I was asked to do was write a brief letter saying that I chose to take out a mortgage for my wife, Leona Temple. The mortgage is actually mine since I am the one with a higher income last year and the only one with an income now and in the future, pension though it is. The policy is explained in English and will be given to me after the mortgage is approved. It would be based on 30% down payment. The interest rate is fixed to government policy which is now 1.99%, soon to go up to 2.1% I have to open an account with HSBC to facilitate the mortgage. Furthermore, I can open an account in an HSBC in Brooklyn on Ave U and have them transfer funds I could send there from TD Bank. The only problem with that is they charge $50 a month if your account is under $100,000us. If HSBC is the only bank that will give us a mortgage,  the cheapest way would be to take the monthly premiums from an TD Bank (up to $670us a day, three days a week [with prior notification to the bank]) ATM machine here and deposit it in HSBC. Cathay Bank (the one Shih-Dong’s wife works for) will also evaluate our request for a mortgage but it remains to be seen if they’ll give one to Leona since she doesn’t have a regular income anymore, or pension.

      Richard Hartzell, the man who helped aboriginal abused wives and me with Libby in 1989, is still around and giving legal advice on Forumosa, a website in Taiwan for foreigners. He responded to my question about foreigners owning property here and confirmed a few details. I wrote this letter back to him:

“I am letting my Taiwanese wife buy the condo, and complete all the paperwork in her name, but I am applying for the bank loan and 'choosing' to give her the mortgage since she has no job in Taiwan and my income is from a pension in New York . THEN, some months later (how long. we will find out) , my wife will give me 50% of the ownership of the house. This is a formal GIFT procedure under current Taiwan law.

贈與 is the Chinese. Between husband and wife, there is no GIFT TAX on such an arrangement. The loan from HSBC is 70-80% at 1.99%. I'll open an account in NYC to facilitate the transfer.
     HSBC told us to get a registration number from the immigration office but when my wife called to find what documents to bring, they told her the number I need was my alien resident number! Even some officers at an international bank don't know how to deal with the paperwork.
     The real estate agent who helped close the retainer deal said he thought a local bank (Cathay) wouldn't be able to give us a mortgage because of having no income in Taiwan. He suggested HSBC and HSBC said 'no problem.' We are still going to check what Cathay has to say (my wife has 'A+' status there for having insure with them for more than five years) because her sister-in-law works for them!”

 I told him that he had helped me out in 1989 and was thankful. He then sent whimsical information about Obama and Biden’s ID if they were living in Taiwan (?)

Leona went to visit her family while I was at work last night. She told her sister-in-law David would probably take out the mortgage with HSBC because it is more convenient and has the terms printed in English. But the main reason we would go with HSBC would be if only international banks could give me a mortgage based on my stateside pension income. If Cathay would give a mortgage to Leona (she would be the recipient based on ‘A+’ status from having her life insurance policy with the bank) at the same or better terms, we would go with them and just pay through ATM withdrawals from TD Bank, just what we’d do for HSBC.

Don't Trust Taiwan Laws

3-22-13 6:52am Fri. (1)

Friday, Leona and I will go to HSBC to get our mortgage for our new home. We will pay 30% down and have a mortgage for 70%. We have to bring a year of our bank statements from TD Bank and the TRS letter stating my monthly and yearly pension amounts; the deed to 1210 Ave. Y is not necessary. The bank wants to see that we have a monthly income. We could have the keys to our place by May 1, I wish it were sooner. I don’t see why we can’t have the keys after our mortgage is approved but Leona said we can’t.

      There have been a few yellow cautionary lights about my buying a condominium in Taiwan with Leona. As I said to Leona last night, it’s not that I don’t trust her; it’s just that she doesn’t have all the answers. And although she always looks out for my best interest, sometimes she forgets. As much as I’d like to just go along with this, I think I should talk with someone. I just sent an e-mail to Richard Hartzell who I hope will know something about the law here or connect me to someone who does. It is not that I’m getting cold feet; it’s just that Leona can’t always help me right.

      I went along with Leona when Jenny, her real estate agent friend, said my name on the deed now would complicate closing on the house. Leona was told my name could be added later as a gift receiver to the deed. I don’t know what that’s about. Finally, I am willing to let Leona’s name be exclusive to the deed if the ownership of 1210 Ave Y is in my name alone, which it is not. The $70,000 Leona had wired from our TD Bank Home Equity Loan must be re-paid or the house will be foreclosed. We are currently transferring $500 a month to it but I want to change it back to at least $1000 again, the amount it was when I was a full-time employee in NYC. I changed it when I became a pensioner. Taiwan law watches out for its own people, whether Leona wants it to or not. I have to watch out for my own interests for myself and children. The yellow lights are blinking.

      This week, when the Taichung DMV took away the driver’s license they issued to me a month ago, it reminded me that the law in Taiwan has many loopholes, some of which are caused by incompetency and some that are intentional. It reminded me about the cruel twists that law took in helping Libby steal my first condo in Taiwan almost thirty years ago. The law has changed since then but how? The yellow lights are blinking all over the place.

They Took Back My Driver's License!!!

3-21-13 7:46am Thurs. (1)

Last week, a few days after Leona left for Brooklyn, I got a phone call in Mandarin from someone asking for me. I couldn’t quite understand what he was saying but it sounded serious. I told him Leona would be back Tuesday and to call back then. He did call back yesterday morning but Leona hadn’t arrived yet. I told him to call back after noon. When Leona got home, around 1:30pm, I told him that guy called back again and she decided to call him back and find out what he wanted. I had been waiting to find out for a week but she didn’t call him from Brooklyn. It turns out the bureaucrats at DMV had given me a drivers’ license in error! It wasn’t supposed to happen that way and the dickhead’s supervisor wanted him to get the license back from me! Leona argued with the moron on the phone saying that they should get their acts together and have one policy that everyone knows instead of ambiguity. I remember that day at DMV a month ago when four bureaucrats caucused at the copy machine to try and figure out how to give a New Yorker with Taiwan residency a local driver’s license. It turns out the only way for me to have one is through an International Drivers License issued by the Automobile Association of America; AAA. By the time I got back from American Eagle classes, the schmucks had come to our house to get the license back. He must have been shitting bricks the past few weeks hoping I didn’t get into a car accident in which case he would be fired for giving me an illegal license to drive! He gave Leona back the paperwork and 200NT transaction fee, too. I asked Leona to make a copy of the Taiwan driver’s license before she surrendered it and she made the copy in black and white; I was hoping it would be in color. I suggested Leona call the TV station, since she was so mad, and make a case out of their ineptness. I reminded her we are not here in Taiwan to change their fucked up ways; only to be retired and enjoy the food, but it would have been cool to see our story on TV or in the papers; her friend Peggy is an Apple Daily news reporter!

3-21-13 7:46am Thurs. (1)

The Weather Turns Rainy

3-18-13 6:23am Mon. (1)

      The weather is the key factor this morning, both here in Taichung and in the Northeast USA. A snowstorm is expected to hit New York City Monday morning into Tuesday. It will be mixed with rain in Brooklyn but some inches will fall in Syracuse. Thank goodness Leona’s plane will be leaving before the storm arrives; her flight is due to take off at 12:50am, six hours from now. Simone and Renna have left Syracuse and headed back to Pittsburgh where the storm will not be a factor, just in time.

Meanwhile, I awoke in Taichung to the loud noise of a heavy rain around 5:30am. It’s the first good rain we’ve had here since the weeks I came back from Brooklyn in early December! I almost forgot what rain looked like, or how good it smelled. The best thing about the rain is it washes the filthy air. The second best thing is there are fewer scooters to make noise because people take their car or a bus or train if they can if it is raining.

Although the rain has stopped for now, it could be a factor later as they expect another shower during the day. I plan to ride the bicycle to and from the movie theater and then to and from work.

The Look From The Street at our condo

3-16-13 8:37pm Sat. (*2)

          On the way back, I stopped off at our new condo. You would never know it was there unless you looked for it; the building is so inconspicuous down that industrial sloping street, the entrance on the lane out of view. I did notice that the electric sign hung vertically on the corner of the building is easily climbed if one wanted to do so to get onto our open patio. I think we should put surveillance cameras up in plain view, even if they’re just dummies. Maybe they should be real so we don’t become the dummies. While I stood there looking, a nosy neighbor from the ugly half painted three-story building facing our patio watched me looking up. Believe me; she won’t be there when burglars come. People in Taiwan, as elsewhere, don’t give a shit about their neighbors unless they can talk about them.

A Strange Phone Call

3-15-13 2:47pm Fri. (*2)

      Some guy from government guy called and said something in Chinese about me I don't understand. His name is Mr. Chow. His phone number is 2234-1103. His extension is 202. I told him Leona would be back Tuesday. I didn’t think it was important to call up Leona at 2am in New York to tell her. Maybe she can call him tomorrow. They work six days a week here.

Back To Brooklyn For Condo Money

3-12-13 9:22am Tues. (1)

      Leona just left in a taxi to the HSR to the airport for a flight to JFK via South Korea. All of this is happening in split-second arrangements because TD Bank can’t transfer funds to a Taiwan bank without an in-person signature. We must have cash here because we put a retainer on the condo! Once we pay the 10% by March 24^th the condominium on Shu-Jing Street is ours! Technically it is Leona’s until she adds me to the ownership in a few months.

      Leona will arrive in New York JFK airport at 8:40am tomorrow (8:40pm Tuesday in New York.) She will return to Taiwan on Monday March 18^th; I’m not sure if that is when she’ll depart NY or arrive in Taiwan and she was in such a hurry she didn’t tell me the time! She said she’d forward me the itinerary. She expects Orlando II to pick her up at the airport (and drive her back?) and she has already been in touch with him.

      I was up on the roof garden with Sweeney-Poo when she called on the cell phone. At 8:30am she got right on the phone with Korean Airlines to book a flight. She was able to get a flight out this afternoon!

How To Pay For A Taichung Condo

3-11-13 12:00pm Mon. (*2)

      The law says we must give 10% of the price of the condominium in cash to start the deal. She agreed to sell for 5.65 million NT ($195,000us) which means we need to give her 5.65 thousand NT ($19,500us) as soon as possible. Leona transferred $70,000 from out home equity loan to our checking account which is the account she used to transfer money to our (technically ‘her’) Cathay Bank Account in Taiwan. This evening I will call the assistant manager at TD Bank in Brooklyn and hopefully she will be able to initiate a transfer of $70,000 without having to go back in person to do it. We will need a total of 30% down payment for the mortgage here, when, we’re not sure, but we may as well transfer all the money we’d need at one time. Leona’s brother is loaning us 150,000NT ($5,172us) and will bring the cash in half an hour. Jenny’s real estate agency (U-Trust) is loaning us the remaining $14,328us until we can re-pay them from the bank transfer from Brooklyn in, perhaps, four days. We will meet the owner tonight at 8:30pm to sign the deal.

Getting Excited About Our New Home

3-11-13 6:18am Mon. (1)

      We haven’t even closed the deal yet for the fourth floor condominium on Shui-Jing Street and already I am looking for a Jacuzzi, juke box, and outdoor furniture. Leona and I went to the apartment again with Jenny who thinks it’s great at a great price. She took a lot of photos and talked with Leona about improvements and problems. For example, the large living room could be separated from the dining area by a sliding partition which would save money in air-conditioning. The air-conditioning unit in the living room wouldn’t have to block the window space so we could have more light come in. The office/library could be air-conditioned despite the window being inside the enclosed patio by running a line to a unit on the outside area. Before we start buying anything we have to have our deal bargained by Jenny, accepted by the owner, the property appraised and mortgage approved by the bank here; we would use the home –equity money from TD bank only for the down-payment since a mortgage here is less interest than the loan from Brooklyn. The condo would initially be under Leona’s name to save paperwork and government approval (Leona’s a citizen, I’m not) but my name would be added to the ownership in a petition allowed for co-ownership

Anti-Nuclear March

3-10-13

At Leona’s suggestion, believe it or not, we walked in an anti-nuclear march on the Westside yesterday. It was another surprising development in our lives here. I have wanted to get more involved and Leona heard me. She kept saying how it wasn’t political but an action for all the people of Taiwan, especially after the tsunami disaster at the Fukoshima nuclear power plant a few years ago. Taiwan has three reactors and is about to complete the fourth and put it on line. Our 5.4 earthquake last week is an example of the reasons why nuclear energy in Taiwan isn’t a good idea for the people’s safety though, like other places in the world, the ruling class wants it to keep their investments tight. Leona rode us on the scooter to a staging point and we walked with perhaps 20,000 other people down the service road of Taichung Port Road to the new City Hall where there was a concert and rally planned for 4:30pm. We left before the rally and walked back to the staging area to get the scooter and ride home. I was going to make chicken Marsala with portabella mushrooms for dinner, which is what I did.

How to Get Money For The New Home

3-10-13 6:32am Sun. (1)

      Everyone is telling Leona to get this condominium unit as fast as possible before there are other bidders. Jenny has been in touch with the owner who said her asking price is 5.8 million NT. She is a small investor who doesn’t want to make a killing on this unit so we can get it for a lower price than the real estate agency would have us pay. Apparently, you don’t always have to have an exclusive contract with an agency; Jenny can act as our real estate broker and do all the bargaining and paper work with the owner directly. Leona and I only need a 50,000NT ($1,734us) bank check to give to the owner to tell her we are sincere about wanting the apartment. Not that she has to sell it to us, but that is why it is important to be fast and first.

 Last evening, Leona too out cash from the 7-11 ATM from four TD and Capital One account. In addition, her brother, Shih-Dong, went to his bank and took out cash to give Leona to make up the difference. I called TD bank on the phone to make sure we won’t be blocked from making other withdrawals this week. I was told we are okay to take out up to $762us with a provision for $1,000 if we call in. I was also told we could have a money transfer from Brooklyn by calling our branch directly and speaking with the bank manager or assistant. Since we have established transfer actions, we might not have to go back in person to initiate another. The manager of the 2700 CIA TD Bank is John Maccarelli, the asst. is Shpresa Nesim, the phone number is 718-616-2200 and the fax number is 718-616-2202. We still have $170,000 left on that home equity loan we took out and $60,000 in TD and Capital One checking accounts combined. We don’t want to use the home equity loan from Brooklyn though; it has a 2.7% interest while a mortgage here would have a less than 1% rate with a discount for first time buyers. If we can leave the house in Brooklyn for now, not use the home equity loan, and pay for our new home with my salary from American Eagle, pension, and later, social security checks, that would be good.

      I did the I Ching last night. It was hexagram #2, The Receptive, with two moving lines that didn’t figure. Sublime success! All of this seems smooth and comfortable though I know it is exciting; it just doesn’t feel frazzled. Leona is very happy that she is getting a bargain for such a large place in the neighborhood of our choice. I am happy, too. Jenny and Shih-Dong acre it is a great price for that size property in Beitun near Dong-Shan Road.

Did We Find Our New Home??? Maybe

A noisy motorcyclist just gunned his machine up the street below, making enough noise to wake someone up. Living on a side street where these assholes can’t make a racket is one goal in moving to a permanent home in Taichung. It has been a priority in assessing the nine units we have seen so far. The second priority has been assessing the mosquito annoyance. It is my conclusion that it is quieter and there are fewer mosquitoes at units on higher floors. At the two units we saw yesterday, the first was on the 8^th floor and on a quiet lane. The second was on the fourth floor off an industrial two lane road. Both were behind a field of bamboo and weeds and an open sewer, a favorite breeding spot for mosquitoes!. Leona fell in love with the second one and didn’t like the first! I like the second one, too. She is ready to go back to American to transfer funds for a down payment!

Half of the 73 ping of the 22 year-old condo on the fourth floor of the eight floor building was outdoors on two enormous patios. One patio has a corrugated steel roof and soundproof sealed windows. It would be perfect for a hothouse and Jacuzzi bathtub and would hold a pool table or ping-pong table comfortably if it weren’t going to be so hot and steamy in it in the summer. It must be about 40’x20’. The other patio is uncovered with a four foot high tiled cement ledge punctuated by every six inches by yellow vertical one-inch wide wooden sticks of varying lengths glued or hammered into the ledge making the ledge a half foot higher and cat-proof. That patio is also about 40’x20’. On that patio we could put a barbeque and picnic table and plants.

You enter the unit through the living room. The ceiling in the living room has crown molding around the perimeter and an elliptical medallion over the swinging area above the entrance door. The room is 20’x13’ with a 9’ ceiling. There is a 10’x4’ balcony on the far right side. The balcony is in the courtyard of building on a right angle to a neighbor’s balcony. You can look into his window on the left a few feet from our balcony. To the left side of the entrance there would be a dining area. The ceiling has a large 4’ diameter inverted circular medallion with a chandelier hanging from its center. To the left of the dining area there is a Japanese tea room (!) complete with 2’ high wooden floors. The 10’x10’ room has a window on the patio and sliding wooden doors facing the dining area. To the right of the Japanese tea room (perhaps a guest or reading room to us) there is a 4’ wide 6’ long hallway. Immediately to the right off the hallway is an 8’x6’ bathroom with sink, toilet and shower. Beyond the bathroom, to the right, there is a 12’x10’ room with a 2” raised wooden floor; this would be our office/library. To the left of the bathroom down the short hall is the master bedroom which includes another private bathroom to its left with a shower, sink, and toilet. There is a window in the bathroom on the open patio between the window from the Japanese tea room and the large sliding doors in the master bedroom that open on to the outdoor patio. The master bedroom is about 15’x13’ with large built in closets to the right. Actually, there is a built in bed baseboard, night tables, and vanity, too, which we would probably replace.

Going back to the main entrance in the living room, on the right of the dining area, there’s the kitchen. The kitchen is small and long, perhaps 10’x4’. There is a two burner stove and a sink with a chip-wood counter and a space for a refrigerator. The kitchen would have to be remodeled. There is a long flexible aluminum flue that extends from over the range along the wall beyond the kitchen, passed a 6’x4’ area for a washing machine and through the enclosed patio and out the patio window. The flue must be about 20’ long! There’s also an exhaust pipe for the carbon monoxide from the water heater that is located in the washing room area that goes out that same window. The price for all this is 6.4 million NT, about $220,000us. Leona says she can bargain it between 5.8 ($200,000) and 5.5($180,000.) Jenny, her friend, will be our agent and is asking for 1% commission instead of the usual 2%. By the way, it also includes the price for an indoor garage spot under the building, a spot that is on the bottom slot of an electrical car lift! The grounds in the courtyard are small but landscaped. There is one elevator up a fight of seven steps.

On the outside of the inconspicuous condominium a block of Dong-Shan road on Shu-Jing Street, just down the block from the chow-tofu place where we always eat is not a very pretty picture. As is so often the case in Taiwan, the condominium is across the street from some factory warehouses with a forklift or two plying the winding two lane two-way street and some wooded bamboo area behind it.. To the south, it winds across a small wash and into a nice area of new million dollar concrete homes. Leona’s brother’s building is not more than a mile away. To the north, a block away, is all the shopping and restaurants we like on Dong-Shan Road. It would be convenient to ride the bicycle to American Eagle in the west or along the Han River winding north and south. The entrance to the building is on a lane which is ugly in front of the building with a weed-strewn vacant lot in front of a few ugly half-painted three-story buildings, the same buildings we would look out to the north fifty feet away from the open patio. We would see those buildings standing up on the patio, unless we are sitting on chairs, in which case, 80% of the landscape off the open patio would be sky. If you look east down from the enclosed patio, you can see the small one floor warehouses but if you look up and out, there is a nice green bamboo grove with some nice new three story private homes and the first condominium we say earlier yesterday morning. Beyond that, a few miles away, is the mountain range. On the first floor of the condo, on the corner, is an ugly auto/cycle repair shop with old vehicles and tires strewn about. The entrance to the condo has a doorman twelve hours (8am to 8pm) and a pass the rest of the time. There is an ugly meeting room which you pass through before you turn left to the short flight of stairs to the elevator to out unit. The stairway to the basement garage is on the left in the courtyard just beyond a small pool with a dozen large fish. I would have to carry my bicycle up those steps to get into the elevator or perhaps leave it outside near the fish pond chained to something, as a few other residents have done. The hall outside our refurbished entrance door has a stairway around the elevator which may also be a place I could chain up my bike, though it would be a hazard in a fire. Nevertheless our one other fourth floor neighbor has shoes and a bicycle on their side of the small 10x4’ hall. Our unit is one of two units that benefits from such large patios because of the construction of the building that has extra room on the first to third floors.

Looking for a new home

3-8-13 6:38am Fri. (1)

      We went to see three more condominium units yesterday, brought there by my new Tuesday evening student, Williams. Actually he was one of our real estate agents who asked me to tutor him and I invited to join the class at the Beverly. The first place was on the eleventh floor of a new building along the Han River where it curves west at the little temple on Shu-Jing Street, 8.8 million for 29 private ping, another 32 public ping. You have to buy both when you buy a condo unit in Taiwan! The views were nice, just at the slink of the Han, and the interior decorating of closets and built in cabinets was part of the deal. We both felt it was too small. The second place we saw was on the fourteenth floor of a 22 year-old building on the other side of the Taiwan railroad tracks on Tai-Yuan Road. For 6.8 million, the size was 38 ping with a interior decorated built Japanese-style dining room. It was noisier than our Beverly unit on the same road but even worse; right where the cars and cycles come out from the underpass, across the street from the construction of the new overhead train, and soon to be started demolition of the underpass to create a flat four lane continuation of Tai-Yuan Road up and passed the Beverly with Sze-Chi ambulance sirens and big-shot Taiwanese men on their noisy motorcycles and broken scooters.

      The third place was the best of three. It was a 32 ping unit on the 11^th floor of another 22 year-old building up Beitun Road passed Song-Zhu Road on the other side of the tracks. It was in a quiet neighborhood with no open stores for a few blocks. The entrance was onto a narrow balcony in the building courtyard. You re-enter the building into a narrow 20’x10’ living room/dining area. The kitchen, north-facing 10’x6’, has a space for a refrigerator that can fit nowhere else. The balcony off the kitchen is only 2’x6’; enough for only a washer and little clothes hanging space. There is a 10’x10’ room to the right of the kitchen which could be an office. Halfway through the living room, to the right as you walk in, are two windowless bathrooms, one supposedly a private bathroom for the 12’x12’ master bedroom beyond it on the north-face in line with the office and kitchen. The other bathroom, supposedly public, is before the courtyard facing guest room which is almost the same size as the master bedroom. The asking price is 6.2 million.

      For the sake of computation of conversion, 3 million NT is about $100,000us.

      Of the seven units we have seen so far, our favorite is still the 5.8 million 32 ping unit on the third floor off Dong-Shan Road passed Shu-Jing Road. We heard that there is another interested party. We will probably lose the apartment to them if they want it because Leona is not ready to put money down. I am deferring to her.

 Even if I think the unit is good, I can’t force a buy without Leona into it. She has passed on a few good chances in the past five years including the Beverly in which we now rent. She may blame me for not buying when the prices were lower then but she has no one to blame but herself.

Today we are going to be shown two more units on this side of the river near Dong-Shan road; we rode past them last evening on our way back from the night market. One is on the eleventh floor, one is on the fourth. Both are within a block or two of Dong-Shan Road’s shopping area not far from the 3^rd floor unit we like.

A Trip to Taipei

3-3-13

Yesterday, the weather in Taipei was wonderful and we had a nice day. After we arrived at Taipei Station, we transferred from the HSR to the Taipei MRT and went to Gong-guan station near Taiwan University for lunch at the Thai restaurant there. Before lunch, I had a seen a street sign that said ‘Taipei Water Park’ and I asked Leona about it. She told me it was a bunch of old buildings in a park and there were water rides for children, too. I was curious and we decided to go there after lunch since it was a short distance away. It turns out the area was the original Taipei Water Works purification plant since 1908 and closed in the ‘70’s. The structure housing the filtration pipes for the water from the Sin-dian River is a beautiful Baroque brown building that you would never guess housed the pipes and switches and gages and valves that it does. We had fun walking around the grounds as well in cool dry Taipei.

 

      After we left the park, we walked back to the street with the Tai restaurant to visit a pet store that had a scratching board for the cats. Enough of dragging around the carry-on luggage, we got back on the MRT and took it to Ding-hao where our hotel was. We rested there for a few hours and then went out to meet Leona’s friend William for dinner. The restaurant he was going to bring us to was closing having lost their lease so I suggested we go to “Amigo,” a Mexican style restaurant I saw along the way. We treated William to dinner this time. After dinner we walked along Zheng-xiao Road and said goodbye. Then we went to the Eslite Bookstore on Dun-hua South Road. We browsed a while and I got two books; The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and Debt: The First 5,000 Years by my old Wobbly friend, David Graeber.

 Graeber, who is credited with naming the 99% of Occupy Wall Street, was signed up by me to the IWW NYC GMB when I was a delegate. I had to buy his book. It made me think of writing my own book about my Wobbly experiences. I may compile information on a blog and go from there. Maybe not. Very painful.

After we left Eslite, we took a walk in the little streets behind Zheng-xiao Road and found an empty lounge bar called “Live Music & Restaurant.” With only a few people, some of whom sang karaoke songs, I had rum and cola and Leona had a tequila sunrise. We sat and chatted and went back to the hotel. We were going up to Tan-shui today until we got the call from her brother. Her father was ill and we had to go home.